Try the demos for an hour and see for yourself. I'll +1 Fei's recommendation of Quintessence. Fantastic freeware game. John Wizard does the Dawn's Light and Lilly & Sasha series and I think his games have the best writing in the RPGM realm. One of the best ones this year is Whisper of a Rose: Gold from RosePortal Games. Excellent production values on all fronts and a fantastic storyline too. I agree 100% with Brittany's review.

My personal favorites are Eternal Eden by Blossomsoft (it has flaws, but it's fun, refined, and has some innovative ideas that other devs are using more often now) and the Millennium series by Aldorlea (I love the artwork, music, and characters.) And although it's short, Rainblood: Town of Death was a work of art. It took me by surprise this year. Deadly Sin: Shining Faith did too, considering I didn't really like the first one.

My least favorite/worst commercial RPGM game thus far is easily Grimoire Chronicles. If I were reviewing it (but I'm not, one of our other staff members is) I'd give it a 65-70 overall score. And given that I'm generally a "supportive" grader, that says a lot.

EDIT: I think if we were to combine the best elements of various RPGM devs, we could have an ace game. Like if I could have John Wizard's writing, Aveyond's music, Eternal Eden's gameplay, Rainblood's graphics...

I personally love the games from Aldorlea with a passion. Laxius Force 1, 2 and 3 are well worth the money. Most people who hate the first Laxius Force didn't gave it enough time. The problem lies with the first part of the game being very bland. Stick it out though as it becomes one of the greatest indie rpgs of all time and moves at a rapid pace. The third game in the series is an absolute killer, it goes on forever but is very captivating throughout.Dreamscape is gorgeous and quite unique and the popular 3 Stars of Destiny serves as a prequel to Laxius Force and Laxius Power.Millennium won indie rpg of the year ( rpgfan ) and the sequel is pretty damn good too.

Check out Aveyond 1 and 2 and Aveyond 3 is pretty good too except for the fact its broken up into 4 different games ( one yet to be released ) Amanda has a great knack for level design and challenge.If you love Aveyond then you want to check out Ella's Quest.

Dawn's Light is brilliantly funny and has great puzzles too and Curse of the Immortals is more of the same but just as good.

The one problem I have with rpgmaker games is after awhile they do begin to look a-bit and play too similar to one-another. So its best not to play the game back to back but to give yourself a break so the experience playing them does't stagnant.

The one problem I have with rpgmaker games is after awhile they do begin to look a-bit and play too similar to one-another. So its best not to play the game back to back but to give yourself a break so the experience playing them does't stagnant.

That's whats great about Quintessence. There are frequent "minigames" applied to major events. The very first one with the deer almost turned me off because I feared all future events would be similarly "puzzley" and progressively more difficult, but that wasn't the case at all.

I've played a lot of RPGM stuff, some bad, some good, and I'd recommend a lot of what previous posters have suggested. But there's two titles in particular that I feel one should really check out; Last Scenario and Exit Fate. They're both freeware and made by the same guy, but I feel that they're both excellent titles, in both the gameplay and story areas. The latter is even largely a Suikoden homage, and a well done one at that. You can find both titles at the link below, and if you have the time to spend on these lengthy titles, you may get a good deal of enjoyment out of them.

I've played a lot of RPGM stuff, some bad, some good, and I'd recommend a lot of what previous posters have suggested. But there's two titles in particular that I feel one should really check out; Last Scenario and Exit Fate. They're both freeware and made by the same guy, but I feel that they're both excellent titles, in both the gameplay and story areas. The latter is even largely a Suikoden homage, and a well done one at that. You can find both titles at the link below, and if you have the time to spend on these lengthy titles, you may get a good deal of enjoyment out of them.

I made one using RPGmaker for my little sister as a birthday present. She liked it, and it wasn't hard at all. It just takes fucking time.

That's awesome! I have this vision of making games for my children. I usually hate on RPGMaker because the groups who use it are so well organized, they ought to apply that energy to a homegrown engine... but making games for family is an awesome idea.

The post below: Daaaaaamn, prerendered backgrounds. Someone has the right idea *downloads*

I made one using RPGmaker for my little sister as a birthday present. She liked it, and it wasn't hard at all. It just takes fucking time.

That's awesome! I have this vision of making games for my children. I usually hate on RPGMaker because the groups who use it are so well organized, they ought to apply that energy to a homegrown engine... but making games for family is an awesome idea.

Thank you! You're right, it's really personal. Kinda like making a card, if the card had a plot and took you three months to make. I am proud of it even though it's kinda cheesy. It was about a girl's brother who gets into an accident and falls into a coma, while he's unconscious a latent psychic ability is awoken inside of him and it allows his sister to enter his mind. Defeating the monsters gets the brother just a bit closer to snapping out of the coma.

The battle system was a bit simple, kinda Pokemon-ish (as it was the only RPG she had played at the time). She could summon friendly monsters (incarnations of the brothers positive memories) to help her fight the monsters. The music was just bits and pieces of various video games, classical artists I like, and an original piece I wrote for her after finishing primary school.

The graphics though I just had to make do with whatever came with the program, because I cannot draw. Not even a stick figure. I really can't draw to save my life.

Are there any decent RPGmaker titles out there that handle mature themes of a nature that you just would not see in an actual JRPG. Not to be pervy about things, but lets face it, every JRPG has a protagonist thats either completely oblivious to the female leads attention, and then is rebuffed as a perv whenever he gives the very same tsundere female lead the slighted bit of attention, OR the protagonist is a self described "playboy" type character who is shot down every which way by the ladies. what if we actually have a protaonist that actually has relationships. (no i'm not talking H stuff, but just an actual believeable tale with believable characters who act in a real manner, given these situations).

I find the most interesting application for this software would be to make the kind of games like this that would just not be released ordinarily by any mainstream publisher in this country.

deathsaber- I've pissed and moaned about that everywhere. Both on the forums and in my "Why my favorite JRPG is not even Japanese" editorial. The one area I want to see Japanese style RPGs evolve is in the writing. Sometimes I think the only series that actually writes teenagers in a believable and mature manner is Persona. Persona 2: Innocent Sin was my personal favorite of the series.

deathsaber- I've pissed and moaned about that everywhere. Both on the forums and in my "Why my favorite JRPG is not even Japanese" editorial. The one area I want to see Japanese style RPGs evolve is in the writing. Sometimes I think the only series that actually writes teenagers in a believable and mature manner is Persona. Persona 2: Innocent Sin was my personal favorite of the series.

Do you know if marketing focus is on a younger demographic in Japan than it is in the US? Or if the transitional age for demographics in Japan is different than in the US? These seem like they would be useful pieces of information to better understand what's going on.

Also, I'd say Persona series doesn't just have the most mature treatment of teenagers in a game, it's tops for treating humans in general in a mature fashion. It has very few peers not just in Japan but including Western developers as well.